Powerful WWI film about the horrors of war, with an exceptional performance by Fredric March as an American pilot flying with the RAF who grows increasingly disturbed by all the death he sees. Cary Grant has an important supporting role as another pilot who clashes with March. This is one of the earliest dramatic roles for Cary that showed what he was capable of. Carole Lombard has only one scene as the appropriately-titled Beautiful Lady. Jack Oakie is March's sidekick, the closest thing to comic relief in the film. About midway through the film, look for a brief scene with Kenneth Howell playing a young pilot. He walks into the scene wearing eye shadow, lipstick, and penciled-on eyebrows!
Terrific aviation action scenes and short runtime are pluses. Sincere, believable antiwar film that gets its message across more powerfully than a hundred preachier movies of its type. Not as well-remembered as some of its contemporaries but it should be.
Terrific aviation action scenes and short runtime are pluses. Sincere, believable antiwar film that gets its message across more powerfully than a hundred preachier movies of its type. Not as well-remembered as some of its contemporaries but it should be.